Rather than my comments, please take the time to read the transcript from Bill Moyer’s Journal, September 7, 2007 from people with actual credentials:

MICKEY EDWARDS: So one of the things that’s happened is giving the— much more leeway to the president and protecting— allowing communications companies to be able to cooperate with the president, with the White House— in eavesdropping on people and taking away from the American citizens the right to sue, the right to go after these companies for cooperating. So, there have been a lot of new powers that have been given to the executive branch in this revised FISA.

ANTHONY ROMERO: And the question on the telecoms in particular is the fact that for the first time you would give the telecommunications the immunity from their consumers bringing challenges to them about their violation of privacy. For the first time you would allow the government direct access to people’s private data through the telecommunications firms….
Do we want to become a different type of America? Do we want the rights and responsibilities of who we are as Americans to change fundamentally? Especially in a context when the war on terror is never gonna come to a public decisive end. That’s what concerns me most, Bill.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah, but see, that’s the very point that the president would probably say, that in this war on terror, Congress cannot be equal. Only one commander-in-chief can act decisively and quickly to prevent a series of 9/11s.

MICKEY EDWARDS: I agree we need a strong president. We need one who has a vision. We need one who thinks and acts decisively.
But we don’t need a strong presidency. We need a presidency that operates within the constitution and within the separation of powers. You know, the current president doesn’t understand that. He thinks that here’s a danger and I’m the boss and I’m the— he has a greatly exaggerated view of what his authority is.

What they said…